Sarah Pekoc

Reflection Paper 1

Sept 4, 2012

The importance of studying juvenile delinquency has grown in the last decade. For example, in 2008, juveniles committed 16% of all violent crimes and 28% of all property crimes in the U.S. (Slowikowski, 2009). According to Slowikowski, juvenile arrest rates for robbery increased in 2009. These statistics make apparent the urgent need to study and examine juvenile delinquency and its predictors. Many studies have claimed that there is a relation between children and adolescents selfregulation and delinquency. For instance, Shekarhar and Gibson (2011) found that adolescents with less self-control were more likely to engage in violent and property offences. Researchers have also found evidence of childrens higher behavior problems, and lower emotion regulation, attentiveness, and impulse control, as being linked with increased delinquency (Holtmann et al., 2011; King, Fleming, Monahan, & Catalano, 2011; Steiner et al., 2011). Furthermore, researchers have hypothesized that childrens earlier self-regulation is a predictor of later delinquency (King, Fleming, Monahan and Catalano, 2011; Shekarhar and Gibson, 2011). For instance, studies have found that childrens lower self-regulation is a risk factor for later substance use (King et all, 2011). However, this area of research lacks studies that cover early adolescence, during the significant transition from middle childhood to the adolescent years. Throughout the course of my research project, I will investigate the relationship between self-regulation and delinquency among low-income children during early adolescence. My research question is whether childrens lower levels of self-regulation predict higher levels of delinquency during early adolescence. In other words, children who have low self-regulation in early childhood may be at a higher risk for delinquent behavior in later adolescence. Data will be drawn from two waves of Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study, a multimethod, longitudinal study on the well being of low-income children and families

Sarah Pekoc

Reflection Paper 1

Sept 4, 2012

in Boston, Chicago and San Antonio. I will examine attention problems and aggression, which will be used as proxies of lower self-regulation, and I will analyze how they relate to delinquency among low-income children during early adolescence. The data were collected at two waves, one when children were between the ages of 10 and 14 (wave 1), and a later one, when children were between the ages of 11 and 15 (wave 2). Childrens attention problems and aggressive behavior were measured at wave 1 by parent completion of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991). Childrens delinquency was measured during waves 1 and 2 through self-report, and captures alcohol and drug use, school problems, serious delinquency, and total delinquency. In addition, mothers reported on childrens age, gender, race/ethnicity, and answered questions on marital status, education, and household income at wave 1. I will perform a series of rigorous analyses along with my faculty mentor, Dr. Christine Li-Grining. We will run three types of analyses. First, we will conduct a cross-sectional study of the data to demonstration self-regulation predicting delinquency. Second, we will conduct a lagged study of the data to prove earlier self-regulation predicting later delinquency. Lastly, we will conduct a longitudinal study of the data in which earlier self-regulation predicts later delinquency, while controlling for earlier delinquency. It is expected that children with fewer self-regulation skills will show more delinquent behavior, across all analyses. The first goal of the project will be to perform literature searches on existing research that examines links between childrens self-regulation and delinquency. Relatively little research has examined self-regulation as a predictor of delinquency in low-income children during early adolescence. A literature search will provide more information about where the research is lacking as well as what variables to include in our analyses. My literature review will involve examining peer-reviewed journal articles, carefully evaluating components of existing studies,

Sarah Pekoc

Reflection Paper 1

Sept 4, 2012

writing annotated bibliographies, and creating Excel charts that summarize key information from articles. The second goal of the project will be to work with Dr. Li-Grining on cleaning data, analyzing data, and interpreting results. My project on self-regulation and delinquency would be considered a quantitative study because it involves data in the form of numbers and statistics. When the Three City Study was conducted, researchers used questionnaires to collect data rather than investigating it personally. My hypothesis can be easily tested, I know exactly what outcomes I am looking for, and the sample used is generalized to a larger population. Several rigorous statistical analyses will be conducted in order to test my hypothesis, furthering our assumption that my project is a quantitative study. However, if a researcher was interested in self-regulation and delinquency, and preferred to conduct a qualitative study, he/she would be able to do so. A researcher could conduct a case study, examining specific children throughout their life span- and whether their self-regulation skills led to increased delinquency in adolescence. Another qualitative option is the field of observation. Although this option would be more difficult and time consuming, a researcher could unobtrusively observe childrens behavior, perhaps in a school or park, (with an eye open for low self-regulation skills), and document whether or not this child engaged in delinquent behavior. Another qualitative research idea could be conducting in-depth individual interviews with children and adolescents, and documenting their levels of self-regulation and delinquent behavior. Taking these factors into account, it is apparent that my research project can be assessed in several different ways in order to reach an equivalent outcome.

Sarah Pekoc

Reflection Paper 1

Sept 4, 2012